A/N: This story came out longer than expected and so is more likely to be seven chapters now instead of five. Consider this chapter an extension of chapter four; the girls finally get their dessert.

I have the next chapter almost ready too so the wait shouldn't be as long this time. I'm also toying with some M-rated stuff, possibly for chapter seven, but it would be my first attempt at that and so I'm undecided.

I would appreciate your thoughts and as always your follows and reviews are loved and appreciated. Sometimes I pop in here all by myself and just hug them for a little while.

Maura sighed. "You're dripping all over my floor."

Looking down past the sodden hem of her coat, Jane noted the rain had splattered her all the way to the knees. Goosebumps rose over her skin and she shivered from the moisture and penetrating cold. When she shrugged, more droplets fell from her shoulders, causing Maura's impatient frown to deepen. "It'll dry soon enough."

Maura went about stowing her coat and umbrella as the detective moved further into the house and placed a cardboard container onto the kitchen island.

"You'll forget all about your wet hardwood once your mouth is full of Italian cream." Jane smirked, letting the unintended but quite satisfactory innuendo settle in her best friend's mind.

Quirking an eyebrow, Maura deliberated whether or not to respond to Jane's bait. The blonde could practically hear Jane's unvoiced snicker but the silent pause that lingered between them felt too long now for a witty comeback. Jane could tease her about that - Gee, Maur', took you long enough – just like she'd tease her for responding with something that wasn't funny. She'd think on it some more and come back to it later if she was still feeling playful.

The doctor moved to retrieve a couple of small plates from a cabinet as Jane removed her saturated overcoat with a grimace and a hiss. "You know where the bath towels are if you want to dry off a little."

Pinching the material of her dress, Jane pulled the clinging, damp fabric away from her chilled skin before letting it snap back into place. "I think I might," she said as she shivered again." In fact, I bet I have some spare clothes in your guest room. I'll just go and change real quick."

Maura turned to tell her friend she could take a hot shower if she needed to but the older woman had already scampered off down the hall leaving a trail of wet foot prints behind her.

It wasn't long before Jane returned, still barefoot but looking much drier and dressed in her pressed work trousers and a button-down shirt. Still actively scrunching her dark, curly hair with a small towel she regarded Maura's questioning stare with a smile and pre-empted her enquiry, "Only things I had here but at least I'm comfortable now. I feel like me again."

Maura's smile widened imperceptibly at the mental image of Jane adding her high heels to that ensemble. Anything was better than those ugly man boots she wore at work. Heels would undoubtedly take the tomboyish edge off and lengthen already ridiculously long legs. She blinked and shook her head a little, as if shaking the image from her mind, refocusing on the real life version of her little daydream.

Jane sat at the kitchen island and began to stuff one end of a huge cannoli into her mouth. "Mmm mmm," she mumbled. "It was so worth getting soaked for these."

Maura took up the stool next to her and tried not to laugh as Jane blew out her cheeks and crossed her eyes in exaggerated pleasure. "You wouldn't have gotten soaked if you'd have let me go with you or just taken my umbrella."

Jane rolled her eyes and swallowed audibly as Maura stated the obvious. "Yes, but then we'd still be stood in line now and we'd both be wet!"

Maura smiled as Jane filled her mouth once again. There really was no arguing with Jane when she thought her plan was best. "It was very chivalrous of you to let me wait in the car. You're the only person I know who would use their badge to make dessert arrive sooner!"

Jane snorted and her hand went flying to her mouth to catch any crumbs or cream that might be sprayed across the countertop. That was a genius move on her part she had to admit. The brunette never, well hardly ever, misused her authority in that way – okay, there was that one time she and Maura needed access to the art gallery - but there had been fifteen people standing between her and a glass display case full of the city's most indulgent Italian delicacies and she thought she might actually drown if she had to spend one more second outside in the rain this week. There had to be some perks to being an officer of the law, right?

So it was with very little shame that the detective had told Maura to stay put, run all the way to the late night café sans umbrella – 'here, take this' 'no, it'll just slow me down, Maur' – and skipped to the front of the queue, badge in hand. "I need four cannolis and I need them fast. I have a medical doctor in my squad car and it's an emergency!"

Jane chuckled and swallowed again with a soft moan. "I told them it was an emergency. I didn't say what kind."

Nodding with another smirk, Maura really did appreciate Jane's efforts to get them both home as soon as possible.

The rain had only gotten worse as the evening had progressed and as roads had quickly turned to streams and the steady thrum of raindrops had turned to booming thunder Jane had suggested picking up dessert and heading back to the comfort and solitude of Maura's house.

Maura watched Jane consume her cannoli with gusto; she was perfectly content. In this place, or any place for that matter, she was so at ease with her friend; her stubborn, loyal, protective, wonderful best friend. The warm feeling she always felt in Jane's presence bloomed and spread within her. There was more to her feelings, suddenly more of… something, but she couldn't place it. She felt regret and disappointment, like this was how a happy life was supposed to be but she'd been too preoccupied with sexual attraction and natural chemistry to see it. Did married people feel this comfortable all the time? Could finding someone like Jane be the key to ridding her of darker thoughts and the loneliness that weighed down her weary heart?

The sound of a plate sliding across the counter's surface interrupted Maura's musings.

Jane dragged Maura's dessert closer to her friend's chest with her free hand and motioned for the blonde to eat up.

Blowing a cloud of icing sugar across the kitchen, the detective blurted messily, "Come on, Maur'. I swear if you don't eat them, I will."

Maura chuckled, turning her plate to inspect her treat, trying to work out the best way to pick it up so as not to spoil her outfit or smear cannoli cream on her face. "Anyone would think you hadn't already had dinner."

With the memory of her interminable dinner plate still fresh and grievously unappetising, Jane stopped chewing instantly and turned to observe her friend.

Her stomach roiled quietly as she grinned and then nodded. Recalling the disgusting meal wasn't enough to stop her grabbing the box to retrieve another cannoli. "You're funny, you know that."

Maura hummed with delight. She hadn't eaten much at dinner either given how truly awful it had been. She brought the cannoli to her lips and took a decent bite. "Mmmmm, that is good."

"Told ya," Jane quipped as she had returned to eating, while simultaneously trying to lick cream from her fingers.

With the plates rinsed in the sink and the countertop wiped down at Maura's insistence, the two women settled on the couch with a drink in hand. They chatted about the current case for a while until Maura found herself feeling anxious. They had revisited every aspect of the case and verbally re-evaluated it, but Maura kept expecting the detective to up and leave, to be as eager as she was earlier to get back to the precinct and carry on working. When that never happened, it became unsettling.

Maura had been quiet for several moments trying to pull herself together when Jane broke the silence.

"Tonight should never have happened."

Maura's brow was scrunched in confusion. "What do you mean?"

Sighing and shifting her body towards Maura, Jane brought one bent knee up onto the couch and trailed her other foot across the floor in front of the couch. "You should have listened to me about Professor Nipples. I warned you about him two weeks ago."

"What you told me, Jane, sounded very much like gossip or hearsay."

"What I told you, Maura, is that he is good friends with Dr. Pike." Jane put her wine glass down on the glass coffee table with an audible clink. "Your passive-aggressive pal, Dr. Moobs, is golf-playing, whisky drinking…" Jane paused to wave her arm around whilst searching for suitable emphasis, "…back-slapping, cigar-smoking buddies with Dr. Pike! Hearsay or not..." Jane was nodding now, her I-told-you-so face at full beam, "…you can tell a lot about a man by the company he keeps."

Maura sighed heavily. She couldn't look Jane in the eye but she couldn't refute Jane's claim either. She'd fought with her gut on this point, and won, before accepting Felix's invitation. Jane's warning had been duly noted but ultimately ignored. Maura wanted to be her own judge of character. It had been foolish and she saw that now.

Jane's stomach roiled again when Maura didn't speak, her eyes growing moist and shiny. "Wait," she soothed, placing a hand on Maura's knee. "I didn't mean it like that. I just meant –"

Maura looked up to meet Jane's gaze but the brunette's attention was elsewhere even as her thumb started to rub at the blonde's bare knee.

"We could have had a nice evening, the two of us, without them."

Maura wasn't following again. Had Jane planned to spend this evening with her all along?

Jane's voice was calm and quiet as she went about processing her thoughts out loud. "I just can't help thinking I would have had a great time, even if everything else had been the same - the annoying waitress, the god awful food, the damn rain…"

"I'm not –" Maura stuttered, shaking her head briefly. "I'm not with you."

Chuckling, Jane noted that that was precisely the problem. "That's just it, Maura. If it had been you at my table, nothing else would have mattered."

Maura was suddenly smiling wider than her face could accommodate. It physically hurt her cheeks she was grinning so hard. She tried to temper her reaction and not seem so overwhelmed by pressing a hand to her mouth and closing her eyes for a beat.

When she finally spoke, her voice was almost a whisper, and the sparkling smile that Jane had been reciprocating had fallen away. "It wouldn't have been the same though."

Jane was picking invisible lint from her own trouser leg as she scoffed, "No, I might have actually enjoyed some of it."

Maura stilled Jane's restless hand with her own, interlinking slim, pale fingers with long, olive tanned ones. "No, I meant…" Maura swallowed a tiny lump that had formed in her throat without permission, "If it had been me, we wouldn't have been at that restaurant in the first place. I'd have taken you to this immaculate little bistro I know where the food is exquisite, no matter what you order, where the service is exceptional, and where the ambience lends itself, almost adaptively, to whatever mood you and your companion wish to create."

The way Maura spoke had left Jane a little speechless. She tilted her head and chewed on her lower lip.

"I just meant we'd have a good time, be comfortable, y'know, and… just talk. No pressure to be anything we're not. Like here," Jane removed her fingers from Maura's and gestured towards the kitchen. "Just us. No false airs and graces, eating cannoli straight out of the box."

Maura smiled brightly but it didn't quite reach her eyes. There was that feeling of disappointment rising again. How had she managed to miscommunicate her feelings so badly? She was terrible at this. She knew what she'd wanted to say. I would treat you, Jane. I would take you somewhere we both feel comfortable, where the staff are nice to you, where you can choose your own dinner and know it'll be delicious. It would be fun, it would be private, we could just be ourselves; be equals. It could be… dare she say, intimate. We could talk and laugh and it would be just as perfect as this moment… but more.

"What?"

Maura blinked, "Hmm?"

Jane's eyes narrowed suspiciously, "You're staring at me."

"No, I –"

Looking down to inspect her shirt Jane huffed, "I spilled something, didn't I? I knew it. Tell me where it is and I'll go get cleaned up."

Maura was too enthralled by the sight of Jane's collar. How had it taken so long to notice just how well Jane wore a button-down shirt? How her long, strong neck met the folded tailoring, how the few open buttons showed just a hint of luscious skin, teasing… If she looked hard enough, and squinted just a fraction, Maura could see the resemblance now. It was why Felix's physical attributes had seemed so perplexingly familiar.

Jane had been too busy rambling and fussing about her person to notice Maura scooting towards her on the couch. When she looked up again it was to find Maura's face much, much closer than it was a moment ago. The realisation stopped her foodstuff search instantly. The detective's eyebrows drew together as she continued to try to determine what it was exactly that had drawn the blonde's attention so completely. Her eyes flickered up, down, left and right; her gaze never meeting the doctor's eyes directly. The look on Maura's face was, for once, truly indiscernible. That she could not immediately fathom her friend's preoccupation served only to befuddle the brunette further.

"Maura?"

"Freckle."

"What?"

"You... You have –"

Jane shook her head a couple of times. It didn't help to rid her mind of the confusion that was smothering her rational thinking abilities. What is she talking about?

She raised a curious eyebrow, "Did you sneak an extra large glass of wine when I went to the bathroom earlier?" She laughed easily, disguising her confusion with a lightly teasing joke.

Maura scooted a tiny bit closer and Jane instinctively sat up a little bit straighter. She didn't flinch or retreat as Maura lifted a finger towards her face.

"Just there," the blonde rasped softly, reverently stroking the tip of her right index finger across Jane's left cheek. Gently, "you have a freckle..."

"Oh," Jane sighed, partly relieved. "At least it's not cream," she laughed, breaking the tension with a little self-deprecation. "It makes a change."

Maura didn't retreat as Jane spoke, just switched the pad of her finger for her thumb, tracing the same path across the freckle and back, over and over.

"Maura?" Jane grasped her wrist, breaking the spell and bringing gold-rimmed eyes back to deepest burnished coffee.

"Hmm?"

"I said, you have them too y'know."

Bringing her own hand up to Maura's face, Jane brushed her fingers along, trailing soft as a whisper down the plane of her nose, across her cheek and sweeping her jaw down to her chin.

"You shouldn't cover them with makeup all the time." Jane's words were gentle, not complimenting for reward or to falsely inflate her ego, just quietly matter-of-fact. She lowered her hand back to where the other rested in her lap. "They're beautiful."

Jane's smile stole Maura's breath as several realisations hit the blonde all at once. She swiftly stood, smoothing her palms down her thighs, flattening the wrinkles from her dress, as she scrambled for a reason to leave the room, "There's, um, more wine on the counter, Jane. If you wanted to…" She waved a hand haphazardly in the direction of their almost empty glasses still occupying the coffee table. "I'm just going to -" Slip into something more comfortable. She threw a thumb over her shoulder and continued to stutter. "Um, get changed."

Jane remained seated. Her brain ran a thousand miles per hour as she pulled her other leg up onto the couch and wiped a hand over her face. What just happened?